The purpose of the law is to regulate the issue of non-standard forms of employment for persons who perform work on a non-permanent basis, to ensure flexibility in choosing the organization of labor relations, and to increase the mobility of the employee when exercising the right to work. That is, in simple words, the law finally regulates the issue of freelance work.
The main proposal of the Law was the introduction of a new special form of employment contract – an employment contract with unfixed working hours. According to the terms of such a contract, the employee’s obligation to perform work arises only on the condition that the owner or his authorized body provides available work, without guarantees that such work will be provided continuously.
Such a flexible type of registration of labor relations has its own guarantees. For example, employers are prohibited from abusing the number of freelancers – contracts with unfixed working hours may not exceed 10% of the total number of employment contracts, and if the total number of employees is less than 10 – only 1 contract with a freelancer is allowed.
The contract with non-fixed working hours will necessarily provide for the method and minimum time of notification of the start of work, and the time intervals during which the employee will perform work will be called basic hours and days.
It is important that a freelancer cannot work beyond the established maximum working hours and must use rest days. Base hours cannot be more than 40 per week.
Work will be paid in proportion to the amount of time worked or the work performed, but not less than 32 hours per month.In the case of fewer hours, the employee must be paid for 32 hours.
The employer cannot prohibit the freelancer from working for other employers as well – it is possible to enter into contracts with other employers on both non-fixed working hours and regular employment contracts.
An interesting guarantee regarding the employment of a freelancer under a regular employment contract: having worked with a certain employer for more than 12 months, an employee can apply for employment under a regular employment contract, fixed-term or permanent. The employer must provide an answer within 15 days – either hire or refuse with reasons. 90 days after the refusal, the employee can again apply for a similar request to conclude a regular employment contract.
Thus, the introduction of an employment contract with non-fixed working hours will allow greater freedom for employees who can perform work periodically, thus creating a convenient mechanism for exercising the right to work of freelancers, who until now were almost outside the legal field.
